Dr Peter White's Blog

About Me

I am retired from the Uni. of Queensland, and have numerous interests inside and outside of the uni. I play classical, bluegrass, country and folk guitar (hows that for a mix?) I am a member of the Australian Labor Party and am currently branch secretary of the Mt Coot-tha branch. I'm also involved in developing virtual reality builds and websites. Never bored!

Monday, July 26, 2010

We are having an election.

Julia Gillard, the new PM, has called a federal election just one month after she took the reins from Kevin Rudd. The opposition, the Liberal/National party coalition, had their coup last year when they deposed the elegant and polished Malcolm Turnbull for the pugnacious Tony Abbott.

Well, the leaders had their debate last night, and left the body politic with a sort of "Ho hum, another bland discussion". The commentariat seemed to agree with that, looking at the contestants' glib lines rather than items of substance. The third element in the debate, the mass media, performed just as blandly in my humble opinion. The only two people who seemed to have a grasp on issues were two commentators, one of whom was a former politicians and the other a senior political staffer, who did point out some quite cogent items that both parties needed to work on.

However, one of the key points that is exercising a substantial portion of the electorate is that of climate change, and its impact on us and on the planet in general. Neither party has had anything of substance to say about this, although Gillard did pay some lip service to it.

The former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, stated that climate change was the fundamental moral issue of our time, and then quietly put the issue at the back of his to-do list, and no one has yet picked it up.

I happen to agree with Rudd's estimation of the problem. Our politicians are showing no serious concern about it. Gillard wants to hold a community consultation to get a sort of consensus about what to do. Tony ("climate change is crap") Abbott has had even less to say.

That leaves the Greens who surprisingly (not!) enough are picking up a substantial number of votes in the polls. But, alas, they will never gain enough votes to hold power on their own, so they will have to either be in coalition, or hold the balance of power in the Senate, which they well might.

Personally, I am very frustrated and disappointed in the ALP's lack of leadership and drive on this issue. After a very promising start, it seems they have wimped out to expediency. The opposition is a disaster waiting to happen. The Greens are too small to make an impact on the lower house. There is only one thing to be said: